Mediators sit in on newest round of Mideast talks

Published: Saturday, April 08, 2000

WASHINGTON {AP} American mediators are not pushing U.S. proposals for a settlement in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, even though the two sides remain far apart on very tough issues, the State Department said Friday.

As a week of new negotiations reopened at Washington's Bolling Air Force Base, with American mediators joining in, department spokesman James P. Rubin said "there's an enormous amount of work to be done" to reach agreement.

But he said, "We're not at the stage where we think it's appropriate for us to impose or pressure either party to accept an American plan."

The goal is settlement by Sept. 13 of Palestinian demands for a state with part of Jerusalem as its capital and problems over water and refugees.

Israeli Embassy spokesman Mark Regev said, "No single round of talks can be expected to solve all the complex core issues between the Israelis and Palestinians." The new round should be seen as "another link in a process toward reaching a framework agreement" by next month, he said.

The two sides also were taking up another Israeli withdrawal on the West Bank. Due in June under a 1995 agreement, the size and specific stretches of territory to be turned over to the Palestinian Authority have not be decided.

So far, Israel has relinquished 40 percent of the West Bank and all of Gaza to the Palestinians.

The new round of talks were held against a backdrop of an Egyptian warning that Israel must agree to a Palestinian state in order to have real peace.

Despite a 1979 peace treaty, Egyptian Ambassador Nabil Fahmy said Thursday that Israelis "do not understand the frustration Arabs feel that there is still occupation."

Fahmy dismissed as "quite silly" arguments over whether Egypt's peace with Israel was warm or cold.